New Delhi: With his 22nd five-wicket haul on Thursday, Vinay Kumar surpassed legendary right-arm off-spinner Erapalli Prasanna’s to enter the top 10 wicket-takers club in RanjiTrophyhistory. The Karnataka captain demolished Mumbai in the ongoing Ranji Trophy quarter-final in Nagpur on Thursday. Vinay bagged six wickets, which included a hat-trick, as Karnataka bundled out Mumbai at Nagpur for just 173 runs.

Kumar, playing in his 100th first-class game for Karnataka, became the first bowler to take a hat-trick against Mumbai in a Ranji Trophy match. His hat-trick extended to two overs as it began off the final ball of the first over and finished in his second over. The three players dismissed were openers Prithvi Shaw, Jay Bista and no. 3 batsman Akash Parkar. It’s Kumar’s second hat-trick in the Ranji Trophy. The first one came against Maharashtra in December 2007.

Vinay also becomes the first bowler in the 21st century to pick up a hat-trick in the knockout stage of Ranji Trophy.

Hat-Tricks In Knockouts Of Ranji Trophy

Bowler

Team

Against

Season

Stage

Result

CT Sarwate

Holkar

Bihar

1948-49

Quarterfinal

Won

B Kalyanasundaram

Tamil Nadu

Mumbai

1972-73

Final

Lost

AR Bhat

Karnataka

Mumbai

1981-82

Semi final

Won (first inns)

SP Mukherjee

Bengal

Hyderabad

1989-90

Semi final

Won (first inns)

S Sensharma

Bengal

Delhi

1993-94

Pre quarter-final

Won (first inns)

R Vinay Kumar

Karnataka

Mumbai

2017-18

Quarterfinal

–

Karnataka have been in tremendous form in the current edition. With four outright victories, they qualified for the knockout stage with a game in hand. They are one of the favourites to lift the title this season.